Qatar: Emirate opens to foreign workers' union

Out of 1.7 million residents, 1.2 million are immigrants

(ANSAmed) - Doha, December 3 - Qatar's labour ministry will
start cooperating next month with the International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC) to create a union representing foreign
workers in the Emirate, according to local press reports.

Foreign workers in the country are 1.2 million foreign out of a
population of 1.7 million and many international organizations
have slammed their conditions as very similar to slavery.
'We see no workers' rights here', said Sharan Burrow, secretary
general of ITUC. 'We will make sure that the rights of workers
in Qatar follow the standards of the international labour
organization. We have met the labour minister and he has said
that if we createa union, members will not be punished'.

Many members of ITUC held a demonstration in Doha on
Saturday, December 1, in the first pro-environment march ever
staged in the Emirate and authorized by the local government
during the 18th UN conference on climate change.

The number of foreign workers in the country is expected to
further grow in the next few years as investments are booming to
build new infrastructures for the 2022 world soccer
championship.

In its last 2012 report on Qatar, Human Rights Watch cited
grave violations against the human rights of foreign workers.

The report denounced that many workers said they were either not
paid or paid late and that employers also failed to legally
register them as foreign workers. Many workers said they had
been given false information on their job and salary before
arriving in Qatar and were subsequently forced to sign a labour
contract. Many live in overcrowded camps with no hygiene nor
access to drinking water. (ANSAmed)